Combinatorial polymer research and high-throughput experimentation: powerful tools for the discovery and evaluation of new materials

Polymer chemistry is very well suited for combinatorial approaches since a large parameter space has to be covered during synthesis, processing, blending or compounding. Moreover, a large variety of parameters need to be screened in order to evaluate structure–property relationships and to accelerate the design and development of new materials. Therefore, high-throughput experimentation and combinatorial approaches in polymer science have gained large attraction during the past few years since they might lead to shorter time-to-market periods for new polymeric materials as well as to a more profound understanding of quantitative structure–property relationships (QSPRs).